Bitter Memories
by Hyorinmaru713
Summary: The Titan's newest adventure...what will be revealed?
1. Chapter 1

Teen Titans- Bitter Memories

Chapter 1

Jump City looked pretty quiet for the moment. Nobody was screaming for help, no ridiculous creature was tossing around tons of equipment to cause major destruction, and other possibilities looked for the better too.

Sitting on the roof of Titan's Tower all by himself, Robin shook his head at it.

It wasn't like the place to be so quiet. He could not remember the last time that things were so peaceful. It made him feel worried made him suspicious even more that something, somewhere, was going unnoticed; something secret that was going to be hazardous to the tens of thousands of unsuspecting residents living without a clue. Just like Robin was. Just like his team was left in the dark, all the same. Not knowing what was going on everywhere in _their _city could get the whole team killed, wiped out one at a time before any one of them had any clue that something was even wrong. And a whole lot more innocent people would be killed as well.

He snorted and flipped open his communicator before he realized that he was doing it, and paged Cyborg in a flash. The half robotic, half human teammate's red artificial eye appeared in the circle screen after a flash of momentary static in an instant, and then promptly backed out for a moment or two so that his full face appeared with a somewhat tired expression on it. "Robin, don't tell me you want me to check the super computer _again_, man," he groaned.

"There is nothing out there…seven hours of checking every ten to fifteen minutes says so, and so do I. Don't you think that if something was going to go down, we would have heard about it already?"

Robin shook his head. He squinted at the towering glass buildings on the sunset's reddish horizon as he responded, rather absently as usual, "Yes. Check it again. Alarms have got to be going off somewhere…I can just _feel_ it." Cyborg sighed and said, "Man, you are taking this hero thing way too seriously. Just chill for a little while." Robin heard him tap keys on the super computer nonetheless and with a yawn he stifled with one mechanical hand, he said, "Just what I thought. All of the crime sensors are reading nothing at all, and I just checked their working components two minutes ago for statistical failures. All of them are functioning properly. I guess today is just…a quiet day."

Robin thought about that possibility for a second. It _was_ possible that no crime was happening or going to happen on just one, measly old day. But the chance of that being the case was slim to none. He did not buy it at all.

"Any jail breaks? Police scanner reports? Weird noises or something?" Robin asked seriously. "Dude, what do you think we are, the monsters-under-the-bed squad?" Beast Boy cut in, dividing the screen on the communicator so that his little green face could appear, frowning at him. "Take it easy…" he continued. "There is nothing out there right now, dude. Everything is cool! So go off and have a date or something!"

He made a toothy grin and raised a eyebrow in a sly kind of gesture. Then he said, "Yah, you know who I'm talking about, pretty boy. Go talk to Starfire and maybe ask her to go get a swimsuit and take her to a-" "Beast Boy, _shut up_." Robin growled. "I thought you were supposed to be on patrol of the East sector of town anyways," he added, looking at the smile now fading expectantly.

"I was…" he said. "But Aqua Lad invited me over to their place for the night so I could play this awesome new video game for Super Monkeys and besides the place looks clear to me…" Robin gave him a murderous look until the static hissed again and Starfire's lovely face split the screen into thirds with a flash, smiling radiantly at him. "Robin!" she chanted excitedly. "The sector west reports nothing, and friend Raven has detected nothing in the north sector well as. Did someone say my name?" she added, curiously staring with her crystal green eyes.

"Yeah Star, Robin did," Beast Boy mused in a sly tone. "He wanted to ask you something!"

Robin's lips let loose a kind of low growl reserved for an animal about to rip out another animal's organs and blew out a heavy breath an instant afterwards. He made a mental note to purposely roundhouse kick the walking booger next time they had combat training and scowled when Best Boy snickered and signed off the screen. Cyborg cut in: "Hey Star he said he wanted to take you on a ride on the R Cycle!" Very similarly, he too disappeared in a flash of laughter and Robin made a note to stick a giant magnet on the ceiling outside his door one morning soon. Starfire didn't notice any of it, and lit up like the fourth of July cheering, "Oh, of course! Where should we meet my friend Robin?" He sighed and smiled weakly and said, "Umm…how about the library in ten?"

"You mean at the books house in minutes of ten?" she asked thoughtfully. He nodded and hung up on her with a chuckle; it was always kind of funny to hear her struggle with English. Whether or not it was right or wrong to do so, he couldn't help but laugh every other time. It was one of the good reasons why he wanted to spend a lot of time with her, especially after Tokyo. Maybe a long bike ride would give him time to teach her some more English, he thought. Besides, he never really elected to have a vacation himself before…maybe it would be fun. What he couldn't understand was why Cyborg and BB always found it funny to put him in these situations with her.

He shook his head to himself again and stood up, deciding it didn't really matter as long as he got back at them somehow.

He turned around to leave and almost back flipped off of the roof unintentionally, seeing Raven only a few feet right behind him, hovering just above the ground and staring at him with that very stoic expression signature to only her. She had her hood down, very uncanny of her, and her violet colored hair was swaying very alluringly in the low whistle of the wind…it looked very good, Robin thought. He wondered why she was here though, because it was very uncommon for her to wander out of her room when she had to meditate. Maybe she was just going to do it up on the roof, next to where he was very quietly trying to think for himself.

"Hey," she said. "How are you?"

"Not bad…"he replied, looking back at the rooftops. "How about yourself?"

"I'm about the same as you, I think." She took a step or two forward very slowly and lowered her voice to barely more than a whisper, and said, "Still worried about Slade?" Robin turned his head at her in a sharp glance before turning back to the city, taking a deep breath. "Yes."

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over what happened before, Robin," she said. "Red X was a good plan that almost got to Slade. So was the apprentice period. You shouldn't keep forcing yourself to completely erase him for no good… just because he was where you made mistakes, you know." He looked at her and she continued, shrugging, "That's what you guys taught me after what happened with my father. I should have told you, and I didn't, and it was a mistake. Mistakes happen, but if you keep living with the mistake like this…" her voice trailed off and she had to avert her eyes to the concrete. "Sooner or later you might make an even bigger mistake trying to help all of us ….before yourself… and you might not come back from it."

She now stopped only a few inches from where he looked down at her, his face solemn as stone. Her eyes were beginning to water, welling up at the corners, and her hands wrapped very slowly around his back. They swept very slowly across the tight muscles in the small of his spine, crossing over each other with an almost silky smoothness so that they slipped carefully up and over to opposite shoulders. They stopped there with a gentle certainty, so her fingers could grip him by the skin just under his short green sleeves, tightening affectionately so he could feel her chest pull closer and tighter to his. The warmth between their abdomens made him shiver slightly in desire, and all he could not restrict himself from doing in response was to wrap his arms around her waist in an equally affectionate manner, squeezing her arms against her torso as his arms flexed slowly. He leaned his head forward in a very careful motion, and set his forehead against hers so that they looked directly into each other's eyes.

Or, at least, he looked into the gems of her eyes, and she saw the reflection of them in the whites of his mask.

"I understand, Raven…" he murmured softly. She felt his hand start to rub the small of her own back, in delicate little circles that felt amazing to her and the pain she was feeling, and with a precision and care she never expected from Robin. She thought he was one of the nervous types when it came to women. Was he really deceiving everyone the way he acted with Starfire?

"Promise me you won't beat yourself up over what has happened, Robin." She put a soft, dark skinned hand on the side of his face. "And I won't either. All right?" Her arms squeezed him a little bit harder as she closed her eyes and said, "I don't want to lose anyone…especially _you_."

He leaned in a brushed his lips against hers. Then he said, "I promise, Raven."


	2. Chapter 2

Teen Titans- Bitter Memories

Chapter 2

Robin pulled away from Raven in a blur of movement just after she separated her lips from his, somersaulting backwards into a reverse swan dive that looked unusually energetic. Maybe it was the kiss. Maybe it was just the feeling of relief Robin felt, from letting go of his guilt and his pain, for what he did to his team trying to catch Slade. Whatever it was, he felt free. And freedom sparked some interesting effects on him.

He felt like he could take on the world.

Beast Boy caught him from his bedroom window in a flash of green, leathery wings and sharp scaly talons. He snatched his fearless leader out of the open air in the form a gigantic, green Pterodactyl, beating its wings with a heavy rush of wind. The prehistoric animal made a piercing call and proceeded to glide gracefully down to the rocky beach of the Titan's island down below, dropping the Boy Wonder just before the massive creature leaned forward and morphed into a ball of green sludge, finally landing as the shape of the skinny Titan with spiky hair and long, pointy ears standing in front of Robin. He turned to face him with another frown that prompted Robin to laugh: Beast Boy was just that funny.

"Uh, dude?" he asked.

"Yeah? What's up Beast Boy?"

"You almost got squashed against the ground over here…what were you thinking?" he suddenly exclaimed, morphing into a chicken that spat feathers in a small cloud to reinforce his argument. Robin started chuckling at that one, and said, "I just…got some weight off of my shoulders. That's all," he said, smiling. The chicken flickered into human form again, and Beast Boy appeared crossing his arms and tilting his head in curiosity. "You lost weight?" he asked. "Dude can you teach me some martial arts so I can have muscles too!" He transformed into a Gorilla and flexed a very hairy stretch of tree stump thick bicep; white eyes and eye brows going up and down as if wondering if he were impressed.

Robin laughed again and nodded. "Sure, Beast Boy. But can you do something for me first?" He reached down to his belt buckle in a quick gesture and double tapped the yellow circle on its pressure sensitive pad. A few seconds later his companion was once again in human form, or as close to it as he knew how to be, and a distant roar of an engine sounded through the city. It was none other than the R Cycle, coming out from the Titan's secret garage on a remote control command only Robin could give it. It was heading to the library to meet Starfire, and that was precisely why he walked over to Beast Boy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Can you take me skydiving?"

His green eyes widened. "Of course dude! Let's go!" The changeling turned around and once again became the tall, illustrious form of a Pterodactyl, its long beak snatching up the yellow and black behind Robin's shoulders to send him flying up into the air. A second later its talons grabbed him under the armpits harmlessly, and Robin felt himself fly higher and higher into the open, clear blue sky as the giant bird swept its heavy wings over and over again. The two of them sailed over the roof of Titan's Tower as they made for the clouds. Raven turned her head as they passed by, where she stood by the door to the stairs, and gave them a small smile and a wave. Then she was gone as the door slid shut behind her, and Robin started laughing even louder than before.

"Beast Boy! I want to show you what it's like to use a grappling hook so take us over the library!" He shouted and the beak made a shallow nod of acknowledgement, then opened wide and made that piercing call again. Robin let his legs dangle and yelled as the bird pulled them into a barrel roll, the air whipping his hair all around and making his skin get goosebumps from it at the same time. He loved it, and still this feeling was all around him! He couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy! Man, it sure was freaking awesome to be on this team!

Beast Boy's human face appeared next to him right before they lost all upward momentum, and he said, "Hey, Captain Genius! If we fly any higher the atmosphere won't let us breathe! Time to fall!" Robin gave him a high five in response and then replied, "Race you to the bottom! Just point and shoot!" He tossed his spare grappling hook out of his utility belt and saw Beast Boy prepare to dive, watching Robin make the numbers with one hand as the gadget landed in his gloved hand.

_5…_

_4…_

_3…_

_2…_

_1…_

"Teen Titans, go!" Robin roared, and with a movement of precision he lashed his whole body out of the flying fetal position he had been curled up in, making his legs kick straight and all the way out, with his arms breast stroking down towards the city before slapping hard at his sides. The already fierce tornado sound of air around his ears changed to something like a rocket taking off, ripping at his clothes like a legion of over-passionate fan girls. He must have been screaming his lungs out as the small dot that was Jump City started to appear, flying towards him at a dangerous speed. But he couldn't even tell. Beast Boy was though, diving daringly only a few feet away from him, his black and purple suit tight enough so it didn't whip at his legs like Robin's cape did, and his mouth was wide open. His eyes were closed though, straining against the air, and with a thought, Robin slapped a spare mask over them from his utility belt, once again.

His green teammate nodded and gave Robin a fist pump. Robin returned it, and they both proceeded to look back down.

Robin almost pissed his pants when he noticed two things.

One was the fact that the City was now very, very visible. It flew towards them and became larger and larger by the second, its buildings now the size of toy blocks and its people now clearly visible ants scurrying very slowly amongst each other. Even with them still so far away, it was pretty damn scary. But it was also fun. Not to mention funny, because when Robin glanced at Beast Boy he saw the his best friend _had _pissed his pants, and was very shakily aiming his grappling hook towards a tall office building riddled with windows and shiny glass. Robin knew he always had to aim for places with more ledges, more concrete. Otherwise, the hook would break somebody's glass uselessly, and would fail to catch anything to make the line secure to swing on. Thus, he would fall to his death. Beast Boy could survive by morphing into a Peregrine Falcon, or another bird, but he wasn't exactly looking to lose a good grappling hook either.

He managed to straighten the target for a tall legal building by pushing over Beast Boy's hands just before he fired it, and after the Bird-A-Rang wrapped around a stone gargoyle and his teammate sailed away, now clinging to the rope for dear life, he thought it was pretty funny and ironic that he could literally pull that off on a legal place.

The second thing he noticed was what really got to him though.

Starfire was several stories below, sitting on the back seat of the R Cycle, facing the library with her legs crossed and one hand on the seat, the other holding what looked like an ice cream cone with mustard and salt topping. That alone was freaking weird. She always had an appetite for the strangest food…and it frankly kind of freaked him out just like all the other Titans. He always tried to get her to eat _normal _Earth foods but never really succeeded. He made a note to work on that later, whenever he got the chance.

The big kicker was that Red X was sitting in the driver's seat right beside her. He had his _arm _around her waist, and was apparently whispering something funny or charming in her ear. She giggled at it and pushed him away playfully, and he laughed as he came back to say something again. Robin knew it was him: the white skull mask, the black suit with the gray belt, the long, ripped black cape with the red letter X on his chest.

What in the _Hell _was he doing here? How did he find Starfire? Why was she letting him get so close to her? And why were they doing it on _his _motorcycle?

Robin triple clicked the pressure belt and drew a Bird-A-Rang as he prepared to beat that petty thief to a pulp, and drag his sorry ass to prison for stealing the suit and causing so much trouble. 


	3. Chapter 3

Teen Titans Bitter Memories Chapter 3

As the ground rushed up to meet him, Robin took aim and fired his grappling hook with amazing accuracy that was only the result of years of careful, and terribly dangerous, training. It shot out with a metallic _shing_ and a puff of smoke like a rifle, and snagged the top of a massive lamp post some three stories above the asphalt. If he couldn't feel the adrenaline for the dive, he certainly felt it when the line went taut and he was yanked in a wide arc under the light.

He was outright fuming angry at Red X, but that was one thing that could always drag a smile out of him, even if momentarily.

His arms flexed hard as steel as he released the line, flying forward with his signature kick lined up to strike X in the head. The wind rushed by viciously, threatening to flip him off balance with the speed he was sailing over the concrete, but he didn't take his eyes off his target. He was going to fly right over Starfire's head and slam that lowly thief right where it counted.

At least, that was the plan.

Red X turned his head instantly to the sound of something, probably Robin roaring in fury, and almost seemed to smile for half a second; the skull mask grinning even more than it naturally did. Then he pressed that magical little belt buckle Robin slaved over creating for months and disappeared in a flash of distorted air, like a shadow subjected to an LED headlight. Starfire turned to face him, her green alien eyes went wide as a deer in headlights, and she screamed.

Robin twisted in mid air like the acrobat he used to be, all lean grace and fast reflexes. He missed her by almost a foot, hand sprung off the handlebars, and somersaulted a good three times like an Olympic gymnast he guessed he could be if he chose to, landing in a deep kneeling position precariously close to fire hydrant. He glanced sidelong at that possible metal painful crash site and silently thanked his luck, a bead of cold sweat running down his face.

Then he sprung to his feet, a Birdarang in hand, ready to beat Red X to pulp with cold steel and the back of one hand. But...he was gone! He scanned the surrounding rooftops in a 360 degree sweep in an instant, peered over the crowd of Jump City commuters that had started to clap and whistle at him around the street shops, and scowled at the manhole about ten yards away. Who knew, maybe he had made a getaway down there. Robin wouldn't really have been surprised.

But where did he go...?

"Robin?" He turned around. Starfire had stood up from the R Cycle, hands clasped together over her chest in a worried fashion. "What is wrong? Do you sense the criminals near this area?" He frowned. "You were just talking to Red X, Star. He's a really, really bad guy...what were you thinking?" His tone dropped to low growl. "He stole very dangerous, very intricate technology and threatened to steal some of the hardest to make chemicals in the world. Why were you talking to him? He was...he was making you _giggle_!"

Starfire's emerald bright eyes turned sad, and concerned. "Robin...there was no Red X with me. It was-here, look!" She raised her finger into the air and a small blue bird landed on it, chirping happily. A small smile started to widen on her face as she stroked it. "It is just a small avian species. I laughed because it landed on the fingers of mine." She turned her attention away from scratching its little head with the tip of her index finger to Robin, her smile fading. "How could there have been the Red X? I could not have sat by idly." Robin looked away to the ground somewhere. "I...I don't know."

He really did, though. It was what Raven had been telling him before they...

Yeah, so not going there. He was supposed to be thinking about having some quality time with Starfire, wasn't he? The issue with what happened with Raven on top of Titan's Tower...that was something he would have to go think about later. But there would be time later. The present was the most important thing to Robin at that moment.

"Robin?" Starfire appeared right in front of him when he looked up, so close he could almost count the lashes over her eyes and see the really gorgeous sheen of her hair reflecting in the mid day sunlight. Her face was radiant as the Sun to him, all flawless smooth skin and alluring complexion. Even with her lower lip sticking out a little out her concern for him, she was still so beautiful. It made him think briefly why he never really told her that, and why he never told her it more often.

He couldn't really come up with a good answer though. It kind of seemed as though his Team cared more about him then he did for them, and it was really starting to show.

He looked up into those big, pretty eyes he really liked to see and put on his best smile. "It's nothing. I think I wanna ride, how about you?" She jumped up and down in excitement, clapping her hands and said, "Oh, yes! Yes! I enjoy greatly the riding of the bike!" Robin swallowed a little bit of fear and said, "Ummmm...do you want to drive? I can show you how, if you'd like." She, in response, threw a Tamaranian hug on him that pretty much threatened to snap his spine and giggled like a high schooler that just got asked to the Prom. "I would love to!" she exclaimed happily. "What is first!?"

She floated gently as a leaf into the air, and landed flat up against the gas tank, holding the handlebars and straddling the engine with her long legs. Robin had to snap out of staring at those for a second or two, and hopped on right behind her. "Okay, so the first thing is the clutch over here on the left handle. You'll have to hold it in while you hit the automatic start button. And keep holding it."

It took a few minutes for her to understand the concept and he didn't blame her; Tamaran didn't really have that much technology, and certainly nothing like a vehicle he had. They could fly through and breathe in space, for crying out loud. But after killing the engine about four time trying to get it to start off in first gear, she got it right. She pulled back on the handle a little bit too far and the R Cycle didn't back down from the challenge: it roared like a demon out of hell and spun out in a cloud of blue smoke from its thick back tire, and the whole front end came up faster than bread out of a shiny new toaster.

If it had been just one of them on it, it would've flipped and flattened the rider like one of Cyborg's signature homemade pancakes.

And they were off! The front wheel bounced down gently as Starfire shakily shifted into second, and the R Cycle's RPMs dropped an octave. Cars flew past at alarming speed and she shifted again, leaning with expert ease to make the big bike dodge all the passing traffic. She started to whoop and cheer as she shifted again, and they sped up through the last main intersection by the Team's favorite pizza place, heading East towards the outskirts of town. Robin thought screw it, and joined in yelling with her as they started reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour, all but taking flight over the last few hills of the city near the outlying suburbs.

Robin pulled himself tighter on her waist as they hit a huge stretch of lonely road out by the speedway. Cyborg had went through all of his car trouble back where they were now, and where they were heading was right where they had first met Terra, out in the desert like landscape. Then Starfire shifted into the R Cycle's final gear, speedy number six, and pulled the throttle back as far as it could go; Robin stopped thinking about just about everything and yelled with excitement as she did.

The orange glow of mid sunset time street lamps some thirty feet above them seemed to mix into two lanes of pure, molten orange lava and the poles blurred into one another, mesmerizing his vision for a second. But when Starfire turned her head around for just a moment, all her lush hair flowing in the high wind and her smile so sweet and pure, he all but forgot about the world around him.


End file.
